The Age-Old Question
by Tango Mike Charlie
Summary: SPOILERS for "Still" (5x22/5x21, depending on your source) When faced with a question, as old as time itself, what will NY's finest do? Case-fic. Sort of.


**AN: SPOILERS for 5x22 "Still" (or 5x21 if you're following production order). This started off as a challenge, but it kind of ran away with me and ended up being my first case-fic. I'm not good at it, so I gave it a humorous twist. I hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. Nor will they ever be.**

* * *

It was nine o'clock at night. Beckett's team had been at it all day. Right now, Beckett, Castle and Ryan were staring at the murder board. On it was a timeline, a photo of the victim, which had turned out to be a farmer on holidays in NY, a photo of his killer and additional information regarding the evidence they had found.

The victim had been killed on a deserted road, just behind The Pond in Central Park. The case in itself had not been that difficult. There were enough clues at the crime scene to point them in the direction of the killer and when they found an eyewitness, the case was built and basically solved. A random robbery gone wrong.

There was only one piece of evidence left that had their minds boggled. They had an eyewitness account of a chicken crossing the road. And they were stumped as to why it would have done that.

Castle said: "I guess we'll never know. Maybe the CIA put her there. Or she's a spy and she was trying to sneak away."

At this, Beckett rolled her eyes. Castle just smiled. He'd known she'd roll her eyes. He loved it. That's why he kept suggesting it every so often.

"I sincerely doubt the CIA would use chickens to do their dirty work for them, Castle." Beckett retorted. "She probably got scared of the commotion and ran away to hide."

Ryan decided to chip in: "Maybe it was supposed to cross the road, you know, like it was following some unwritten law by nature. Jenny says animals have those instincts. Actually, Jenny says that we, humans have instincts like that as well, but we have learned not to..."

Esposito came out of the break room and interrupted Ryan: "Yo, if that chicken wanted to cross the road, who are we to judge? She's of no relevance to us or this case."

To which Castle replied: "Sure she is. Why else would a chicken be in Central Park? The farmer must have brought her."

At this moment, Beckett's phone rang. Beckett looked at the screen, which showed a photo of Lanie smiling back at her. She picked it up.

"Hey, Lanie! ... No, we're still at the precinct. We're trying to figure out why the chicken crossed the road. …. No of course you can't know why until you've examined her. She's not dead however, nor is she in our custody, so that's out of the question. …. Well, ok. Let's see…"

She looked at her watch.

"I'll see you in twenty."

As she said this, Gates came out of her office, putting on her jacket as she passed the group. Looking at the board, she stopped for a moment.

"I don't care why it crossed the road, but that chicken had better not find its way into my precinct! I have no doubt you'd find a reason for it to be here, Mister Castle, but I'll tell you right now that if you do, it'll be the last you'll see of this precinct. Just a fair warning."

"Sir?"Castle nearly pouted.

Gates smiled.

"You're safe for now, Mister Castle. Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going home." With that she left.

The four looked at each other and silently agreed to reconvene the next morning.

Ryan turned and walked to his desk to get his coat: "Ok, see you tomorrow."

Esposito joined him at the elevator: Hang on, I'm going home as well."

Castle and Beckett were still staring at the board, but they turned their heads as they heard the elevator ping.

"See you tomorrow, guys, thanks!"

"Until tomorrow!"

With that, the elevator closed again and Castle and Beckett were left alone in the precinct.

"You know, she did not just *cross* the road. That wonderful birdlike creature put her sturdy legs in front of each other and quickly tiptoed over that seemingly endless stretch of road, only stopping for a moment when she spotted the Pond from afar, so she could study it for a moment, after which she hurried on, acknowledging the fact that a jogger - our witness, as you know - was approaching rather fast by trying to get herself to the other side safely. I'm glad she even survived the ordeal. It must have been very stressful for her." Castle tried again.

"Go home, Castle. We'll sleep on it." Beckett smiled.

"We? Why Beckett, I'm not sure sleep would be involved if you joined me in my bed tonight."

"Funny Rick, you know I have a date with Lanie tonight."

"Yes, Kate. I know. But let me know when you get home. I might come over for a while, if you don't mind." He was quite serious.

Not even a beat of hesitation.

"Sure." She smiled and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. With everyone gone, she felt save enough to do that in the precinct, even if they had a rule to keep it out of the office. Gates knowing about it hadn't changed that rule.

They got their coats and walked hand in hand to the elevator.

When they got out, they parted ways.

"See you later, Rick. Love you." Beckett smiled and gave him a kiss.

Castle just stared at her until she was out of sight. He let out a deep happy sigh. He would never get enough from hearing her say that, or from kissing her for that matter.

* * *

When he got home, he found both Martha and Alexis in the living room. After exchanging the usual pleasantries, Alexis asked: "So, how was your day, dad?"

"Well, as a matter of fact, we almost managed to solve a murder in one day, but there is one piece of evidence that makes no sense. It's what I like to call, the age-old chicken-dilemma."

"As in: what was first, the chicken or the egg?" Alexis asked.

"No, the other one: why did the chicken cross the road? According to a reliable eyewitness, a chicken crossed the road, right before the farmer was killed, right at that same spot. We have no idea why."

"I'm guessing, to get to the other side?" Alexis replied in her usual no-nonsense style.

To which Martha replied: "Don't be so logical all the time, Kiddo. I'm sure there was nothing else to be done. There was only one way to survive. She had to cross the road. And in doing so, she accomplished the great thing she was born to do."

"May I present: My mother, the drama-queen." Castle laughed.

"Watch it, mister, or I'll be crossing this room to wipe that grin off your face." She smiled.

Castle was thinking out loud: "Maybe she only made us think she crossed the road."

"You mean, she crossed halfway and then turned around? Just to fool us, or whoever saw her? Why would she do that? That would mean she has some sort of intelligence."

Castle's ears perked up.

"Thanks!" He jumped up, kissed Alexis on her head and blew an air-kiss in his mother's general direction, while he put his jacket back on and left the loft, already sending a message to Beckett.

"I have to find Kate! I'll be back later!"

* * *

He had not even left the building when his phone rang. It was Beckett.

"Kate! I know what happened! Where are you?"

"I was just about to let you know that Lanie had to leave and I'm home. Why don't you come over. We'll discuss it."

"On my way!"

Castle waved at a taxi that was looking for a ride.

"I'll be there in ten!"

* * *

True to his word, ten minutes later, Castle knocked on Beckett's door. She quickly opened it, letting him in.

"Hi." She said. "I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon. Lanie got a call to do an emergency autopsy from another department, so she had to go."

Still excited from his revelations, Castle quickly kissed her on the lips and then crossed into her living room, where he dropped his jacket on a chair and sat down on the couch.

She closed the door and joined him.

"Ok, shoot. I can see you're excited about something."

Glad he was finally able to spill his guts, Castle rambled: "I am! I think I have figured it out! I was thinking maybe the chicken hadn't really crossed the road, but only made us think it did. Alexis mentioned it would have to be intelligent to do that. Which is when I made the connection…"

"…A robot!" Kate joined in, smiling at him.

Castle's face lit up. He loved theory building with Beckett. They were so in sync they could end each other's sentences flawlessly without hesitation.

"Yes! What if this farmer wasn't really a farmer?"

"You mean, he was an inventor?"

"Or a designer. He designed a robot, shaped like a chicken."

"It must be programmable to so something."

"Maybe to smuggle drugs?"

"Or to deliver some sort of biological agent."

"Or carry a bomb, shoot someone, the possibilities are endless. Who would suspect a chicken?"

"Not us, obviously."

"I'm guessing the farmer was there to sell it but something went wrong."

"He must have programmed the chicken to run away if something went sour. He sent the chicken on its way, just before he was killed, which is when our jogger saw it cross the road."

"We must find this chicken. Where could it have gone?"

"Well, the farmer only had one address in NY. I'm guessing he sent the chicken there."

Kate got up and made a call.

"They've sent a unit to the hotel he was staying at. They'll let us know if they find it."

Half an hour later, they got a call to say that the chicken had been found, hiding in the alleyway behind the hotel. It had indeed been a robot. It had been dismantled and could do no more harm.

"I'll write it up tomorrow, thanks." Beckett ended the call.

"Think we'll make the paper?"

"Why would we make the paper, Castle? It's not the first time we've solved a murder."

"No, but we did figure out the answer to that age-old question of why the chicken crossed the road."

Castle smiled and ducked as he saw a pillow flying his way.

* * *

**AN: It didn't really fit in the story, but I didn't want to leave him out of it, so a small addendum:**

I can't be sure of course, but if he'd been alive today, I would like to think that Captain Montgomery would have explained it this way: She must have been looking for a place to make her stand.

**AN2: The challenge was to come up with answers to the question of why the chicken crossed the road ****as they would have been given by the Castle-characters. **I couldn't settle on a single one for Castle and decided to use several. Which made it necessary to write a story around it. I hope you enjoyed it. :) Please leave a review. It is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

**Also: I edited Ryan and Gates' comments to incorporate a suggestion made by Ariel119. Thanks :)  
**


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